Artifacts and Talismans
The Talismans of Shendu are a collection of twelve powerful magical artifacts named after the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. Each talisman contains an aspect of Shendu's power, and when combined allows Shendu to assume his ultimate form. History Ancient Times In the past, Shendu had conquered China; Shendu's subjects rose up against him, led by Lo Pei. Using an extraction spell, he trapped Shendu in statue form, separating his powers from him in the form of twelve Talismans. Lo Pei scattered them across the four corners of the globe to make sure Shendu would never again rise to power. The Talisman Hunt It would be nine centuries before Shendu made a deal with the Dark Hand in exchange for the Lost Treasure of Ching Xi Hung. However, they only got him two Talismans (the Sheep and Dragon) while their nemesis, Jackie Chan, had the other ten. By tricking Jackie's Yang (dark) side (affected by the Tiger Talisman's magic), Shendu gained the other Talismans and returned to power. Near Hong Kong, at Shendu's Palace, Jackie used a potion dabbed on his hands to extract the Rat Talisman and turn Shendu back into a statue, which Jade then destroyed with the Dragon Talisman. Jackie intended for the Talismans to be buried in the Earth for all eternity when Shendu's palace collapsed after Shendu's statue form was destroyed. However, the Talismans ended up in the possession of the Dark Hand, who tried to use them to commit robberies. Unfortunately, they were stopped by Shendu, who came back as a spirit. He enlisted their service to help him release his demonic siblings, as the Talismans were of no use to him in his spiritual form. Later, the J-Team was able to recover the Talismans and had them locked in a vault at Section 13, from which they would make cameo appearances in later seasons as characters used them for various tasks. Normally, they would be used against the main antagonist of the season, and the J-Team would use them in the season finales of 4 and 5, against the Oni and Drago, respectively. Jade in particular is known for regularly taking various Talismans out the vault in "Talisman raids" for her own purposes. The Noble Animals In season 3, both Daolon Wong and the Dark Hand managed to break into Section 13 and attempted to steal the Talismans. However, Jackie fired a powerful laser cannon at the bag of Talismans, intending to destroy them forever, as well as put an end to Daolon Wong's plan and anyone else who intended to use them for malevolent purposes. However, he learned the hard way that, although the Talismans can be destroyed physically, their magical powers are invulnerable. As a result, the powers were scattered to the winds they had to seek out another host. So, instead of ending the Talisman quest for good, Jackie started it all over again (much to his chagrin). The Chans were able to get nine of the animals that became the new hosts for the talismans ; the Pig and the Rooster were captured by Daolon Wong, and there was no dragon left on Earth. They tried to place the Talisman powers within replicas that Tohru carved, but the replicas would not hold the energy. Meanwhile, Wong resurrected Shendu in order to gain the Dragon's magic, only for Shendu to betray him and slowly regain all his powers. Luckily, Uncle, Tohru and the Section 13 agents produced another extraction spell, trapping Shendu in statue form again and reforging the Talismans. The Talismans were once again kept safe at Section 13 now with Shendu's statue locked alongside them. The Final Battle During the battle against Drago in the final episode, Jade retrieved the Talismans from Section 13 before its destruction and supplied everyone fighting against Drago with a Talisman each (Eggbert with Rooster, Mordecai with Pig, El Toro Fuerte with Ox, Viper with Snake, Jackie with Rabbit, Paco with Sheep, and Captain Black with Dragon). Realizing that Drago was winning, Jade instructed everyone to throw their Talismans to Shendu so he would stand a better chance in the fight against his son. Using a reversal spell, Uncle and Tohru banished Drago and all demons from the Earth, and the Talismans are never seen again. Twelve Talismans On the front of each talisman is an animal of the Chinese zodiac, while on the back are inscriptions that describe their powers. Talisman Locator Before Tohru landed on and destroyed it, Shendu at one time had an artifact that could locate the Talismans. The item was a handle with four, dragon-like heads. The eyes would glow red from the dragon pointing towards the nearest Talisman whenever used. Aside from this, there were specific spells used to detect the Talisman and their powers if within a host. T-Girl Jade once absorbed all twelve Talisman powers at once when the vault's security system - an electrified floor - came into contact with the Talismans which caused their powers to leave their respective talisman and merge with Jade, creating "T-Girl". In this instance, she could activate each power using a different finger and body part. *Left thumb = Rooster *Left index finger = Ox *Left middle finger = Snake *Left ring finger = Rabbit *Left pinky = Sheep *Right pinky = Monkey *Right ring finger = Tiger *Right middle finger = Dog *Right index finger = Horse *Right thumb = Rat *Eyes = Pig *Mouth = Dragon Trivia *A regular occurance in the series is to have a light quickly shines over the Talisman, especially when its power is activated. *Although the Dog Talisman prevents death or major injury, it does not prevent one from feeling pain, which is something the Horse Talisman does. This was shown by Finn in The Stronger Evil, when he flew into a bridge overpass, saying, "Immortality hurts". Ironically, he had previously said having both healing and immortality would be redundant, and swapped the Horse for a different Talisman shortly before. *Although the Pig Talisman isn't as strong in its offensive uses as the Dragon Talisman, it can also grant the user thermal imaging in order to counter the effects of the Snake Talisman. *Jade once commented that the Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Rooster, Snake and Dragon are "the good ones", in that they are the most useful of the twelve. *Finn considered the Rat, Sheep, and Tiger Talisman the three most useless Talismans due to their non-combative applications. *The Talismans are often activated by pressing them in one's hand, but the effect can be maintained as long as they are kept on the user's person (for example; worn as necklace, inside a pocket or even contained within the user's body after consumption). When Jade had the Rooster Talisman inside her body after eating it, she could use its power by leaning her stomach forward. *Dai Gui seemed to loathe the talismans and Shendu's possession of them, remarking "Shendu and his accursed talismans!". However, Dai Gui, Bai Tza and Tso Lan returned them to Shendu after defeating Tohru, Viper and El Toro Fuerte respectively. *Thanks to DeviantArt-ist Parallel1980 you can now make your own out of cardpaper, scissors and glue: The Rabbit and Dragon, the Rat and Horse, the Snake and Sheep, the Dog and Pig, the Ox and Rooster, and the Monkey and Tiger. *A common reoccurring theme with the people using the Talismans, is making puns based on their animal or power. *Only seven of the twelve Talismans show complete animals on their fronts, while the other five show only a head or half of the animal depicted. **The animals depicted as incomplete on the Talismans are the Tiger, Horse, Ox, Dragon and Pig. **The animals depicted as whole on the Talismans are the Rooster, Snake, Sheep, Monkey, Rabbit, Rat and Dog. *The Tiger Talisman is the only one to show more than one animal, though it may "technically" be one, as it represents its ability to split its user into their two "sides". *The Ox Talisman is the only one to show the animal looking directly forward, though the Pig is looking mostly forward as well. **Those looking to the left (from the perspective of someone looking at the Talisman head-on) are the Snake, Dragon, Horse, and Pig. The Tiger is arguably also looking left if its two images are rotated to each be upright. **Those looking to the right are the Rooster, Rabbit, Sheep, Rat, Monkey, and Dog. Category:Magic Category:Objects Category:Talismans